In-State Talent Retention from 2002-2009
by Rickyspub on Jul 27, 2009 3:34 PM CDT
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PrintOn the Darius White thread one poster did a little research looking at 5* player retention by some of the top teams over the past 5 years. Some of us thought the sample size was a little small, so I ran through the Rivals 100 for the years they cover, 2002-2009. I decide to pull only from the states that are recognized as football hotbeds and also have had a MNC contender in the state during this period. I ended up counting 67.25% of all the players ranked in the Rivals 100 by pulling from the following states (total number of Rivals 100 players in parens): Florida (120), Texas (107), California (102). Georgia (47), Ohio (34), Louisiana (33), Pennsylvania (32), Alabama (27), Michigan (20), and for sh*ts and grins OU (16). I probably should have added Virginia just because VaTech has been a long-time contender, though I am not sure if the state would have even topped Michigan's 20.
We'll get to the big boys in a second, the retention rates varied quite a bit in the 7 second tier schools. Here are the percentage of in-state Rivals 100 players retained by each school: UGA 49%, OSU 65%, LSU 79%, PSU 25%, Bama 59%, Mich 55%, OU 63%. LSU had an incredible retention rate (OU's is less impressive considering the small number of top players), while Penn State's is horrific. Bama was interesting in that the number of Rivals 100 kids in the state jumped a bit once Saban came on board! Who knew great coaching trickled down. Bama also had a much higher retention rate after Saban was on board.
Georgia's comparatively anemic numbers actually shadow the numbers for Texas and USC. The three big states have their own stories but Texas and USC are suprisingly similiar. UT retained 42% of the Rivals 100 athletes in Texas and USC retained 47% in California. Florida is obviously different with 3 relatively recent powerhouses in-state. UF retained 23% and FSU and Miami came in at an identical 21%. The spread was as one would expect; Florida does better recently and FSU was dominant early. Miami has been relatively consistent. While there are other programs in-state all but one of the remaining 35% left for out-of-state programs.
Here are the total numbers of Rivals 100 athletes retained by each program:
UT-45
USC-48
UF-28; Miami-25; FSU-25
Georgia-23
OSU-22
LSU-26
Bama-16
Mich-11
OU-10
Penn State-8
The SEC teams all are in similar territory, except Bama which if they continue to build on last year would make Saban's coaching job there much more impressive (at which point I will officially take him off of my overrated list).
I then looked at the poaching between these big programs. Not surprisingly OU did the most poaching from these states with 24 Rivals 100 members coming from one of the other 9 states. Obviously most of the damage done was in Texas where they took 18 players (2 more than A&M during this period!). Michigan and LSU were tied with 15. Five of LSU's takeaways came from Texas. USC had 13 (surprisingly ND had the same number, which is probably why they are down). Miami and FSU both had 10. We only had 2, both in 2002 (Brian Pickryl and Chase Pittman), which isn't a big surprise.
Three things stood out to me. One, by focusing on just Texas talent we stack up pretty well even when you add in out-of-state Top 100 talent that other schools are doing a better job of chasing. OU only totals 34 Rivals 100 players from these 10 important states (OK, including Oklahoma itself is a stretch). Two, while it isn't a total surprise, USC's poaching was pretty impressive and while I was sure they easily out-distanced everyone for this period, the total might be even higher than I thought. Its really amazing they only have one MNC (and two trips) to show for it. Third, OSU, Florida, and Bama didn't do as much poaching as I would have thought (8, 6, and 2 respectively).
Obviously, this leaves out 4/5 of the rest of the country but they supply less than third of the top talent in the country, but the point of the exercise was to determine whether we were getting poached at a greater rate than our counterparts in other states. I think we are in decent shape considering all the factors.
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Nice work, Ricky
I’ve thought about doing something similar . . . I’m a lot better at thinking than doing.
My sense is that Texas has done great at retaining the top talent in the state. Am I frustrated with the misses? Of course. As an example, all of us worry about the current defensive tackle situation. But Mack signed the best (or second-best) DT in the state in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 (Wright, Okam, Miller, Dre Jones, Humphrey and Howell; I read somewhere OU got McFarland) . . . and that hasn’t prevented the current shortage at the position.
But I think there’s an apples and orange thing as far as schools keeping star prospects in the state. As you point out, Florida is not a good comparison because of the quality of three programs. Most of the others don’t parallel UT/Texas (the school/the state) . . . Penn State is the ONLY big-time BCSer in that part of the world, and they recruit all over the east (New England, NY, Jersey, Maryland as well as in-state) . . . Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, even Michigan are not large enough states (referring to population) for those programs to restrict their recruiting to in-state.
Texas does. Almost totally. Mack says the most important thing Darrell Royal told (evidently, taught) him was to “take care of the Texas high school kids;” UT’s recruiting over the last decade proves that. You’ll have your most success wherever you spend the most time and money. I don’t have a problem with this. Where the rating system breaks down — and strongly work against UT — is that a heavy percentage of the 5-stars (and the top 4-stars) in Texas are from the Dallas area and East Texas, and those areas are closer to OU/LSU than to Texas (or A&M, for that matter). Not a lot you can do about geography.
Yeah but,
there is a highly publicized 5 star running back from Central Texas this year and it looks like he’ll be headed out of state as well. Can’t blame this one on location.
I don't think Royal had to deal with street agents and media hungry recruits either...
Its a different world and after the problems of the past several years, I don’t blame him to much for trying to avoid kids who might cause problems. If he also has a street agent making his moves, its all the more reason to steer clear.
PSU was an interesting case...
Considering I was only looking at recruiting within these more select cases, I left out most of PSU recruiting grounds. I imagine OSU’s ‘poaching’ numbers were somewhat lower for the same reasons. It does make you wonder however if OSU and PSU are winning a battle but losing the war. Is the talent in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic really at the same level as in California, Texas, and Florida? Taken as a whole the region probably supplies at least 6 or 7 Top 100 players, but are they really that talented or do the ranking guys have to show some balance or just can’t reliably compare the competition these players are facing? How much is OSU’s consistency based on being better at retaining its in-state talent compared to PSU and even Michigan?
The interesting thing was that the Rivals 100 list became more clustered in these 10 states (Ok, Oklahoma’s numbers we pretty static) over the period they have been ranking recruits. It seems to fit with the rumors I heard on OB that the rankings had a marketing component that skews the rankings to broaden their appeal in certain regions. It was odd how Alabama jumped from having 1 or 2 Top 100 players a year to having 4 or 5 players in more recent years. California went from having only 9 or 10 players in the top 100 some years to consistently having 12 or more over the past three or four years. Texas and Florida have been pretty consistently in the 14 to 17 range. Did these shifts come at the expense of other states who don’t have much of a paying public for Rivals’ services?
Cool
The Eyes of Texas had a neat recruiting article that wrapped up A&M/OU/UT, this is an interesting twist/expansion looking at top 100 rather than total recruits.
Nice job
And 45% of all the in-state kids that rank among the best in the country is not a bad average.
Seems to me that since I have started to obsess about recruiting in the last 5-6 years, I think of it as Matt Damon did about Poker in Rounders. The misses sting so bad that you remember them more and you think there are more than there really are.
If you take a good long look (like you did) at Mack’s recruiting of elite athletes in TX, I don’t think anyone can realistically complain. But I can literally name the 8-10 misses I wish we had so bad that it blows them out of proportion and we all complain about them!
This is compounded by the 3 kids from Texas next year (White, Jeffcoat, Seastrunk) that it looks like might all go elsewhere. We have a top 5 class, but those few misses will sting us, and of course, the complaining will ensue…..
"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese
P.S. 45-35
I find it humorous.....
……that national recruiting is somehow referred to as “poaching.”
Is that how we referred to our recruiting of Ricky Williams, Major Applewhite, Cole PIttman, Bo Scaife and Chris Simms?? To name just a few.
--- All roads to the Big-XII Championship lead through OU/RRS. It's not just another game! We're all about championships here. ---
I find it humorous
that in one breath you complain about how Mack doesn’t get enough out of state recruits, and in the next you use phrases like “to just name a few” as if there are hundreds.
"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese
P.S. 45-35
That's back.....
…..when we still did in-home visits. Now we invite them to Austin to bow before the thrown and kiss the ring.
--- All roads to the Big-XII Championship lead through OU/RRS. It's not just another game! We're all about championships here. ---
Are you certain that they don’t do in-home visits? I haven’t seen anything indicating that, and I thought I’d actually read some articles about Giles and Applewhite visiting recruits.
by burntorangehorn on Jul 28, 2009 4:40 PM CDT up reply actions
I guess, but there’s that “we” thing again.
by burntorangehorn on Jul 28, 2009 4:52 PM CDT up reply actions
If it's us
taking from them, it’s good national recruiting.
If it’s them taking from us, it’s poaching.
Got it?
by edsp on Jul 27, 2009 10:06 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
I have a problem with just comparing percentages of top 100 prospects that were kept in state. The problem is that 1) the number of top100s in each state differs and 2) the size of each football team (and number of scholarships) does not.
So, LSU only has to get 26 players players get an incredible 79%, while UT would have to keep aproximately 90 during that 7 year period. The available scholarships on each team however is still XX (i think it’s 88, but I can’t remember exactly).
When LSU signs a DL from the top100, that’s all they have in state to sign for the DL. When we sign the number 1 in state, there is still another 1 or 2 DL in state that are on the top100 list. You can’t expect UT to get all 3 or 4 top DL (or RB, QB, ect) because you can’t expect the PLAYERS to want to come here when there are already 2 or 3 other people at the same position signed on.
So yeah, the problem with this complaint and comparison is the size. We can’t sign 90% of the top100 players in Texas every year unless we force everyone out of the program after two years; we’d run out of scholarships.
We also wouldn’t have room to sign any of those near worthless 3 star players who are merely here to serve as tackling dummies or ‘good locker room’ characters. [/sarcasm]
That is why I separated the discussion into two groups...
The SEC teams that are not in Florida have to do a good job of holding onto their locals or they end up like Auburn. The three Florida teams actually came in with similar numbers to the other schools in the region, but their percentages are lower because of the wealth of talent in the state. Basically LSU has to keep a larger percentage of the best players in their state or they risk having years where they lose out on the talent that other programs are trying to keep in their own states. To me it was interesting just how adept LSU has been at retaining their talent compared to the other SEC schools. Even when we have a down recruiting year we are pulling in better talent from in-state than LSU could when their state is weak on talent.
I agree that a direct comparison is a bit misguided, but that was part of the original discussion where some were disappointed by our inability to keep most of our 5 star athletes in state while Saban was cleaning up in Alabama. You can see the numbers, who cares how Saban does, he holds on to a tiny percentage of talent when compared even to those we don’t even bother chasing in-state most years. So while he and Miles might do a good job of holding their small numbers of top 100 players, we’re doing just fine thank you very much!
I wish Rivals had a 250 list for more than just the past few years and I would expand this look even further.
I wasn’t really refering to your article, sorry. I think you did a good job showing the problem witht the argument/complaint a lot of people make. It’s not just black and white. There’s more to it than “LSU/Bama/OSU don’t ever let their stars get away, so why do ours get away all the time!?!?!?? Waaaah!” Bama only has about 4 a year to keep all the big names in state (and somehow they have more since Saban started coaching…hmm…makes you wonder how much work Rivals/ect really do evaluating and how much is just them basing it on people getting offers). We’d have to keep about 15.
I think the article was very well done and very interesting.
Great Post
There seems to be a few ways poachers operate. Trespassing, out of season, or taking over the limit. They go where they’re not invited, cast a huge net, and take more than they can keep.
The purist will let a nice trophy pass by knowing quite well there is no guaranty on a better one coming around later, but being okay with the decision believing that he will be in the hunt again.
I admit I was frustarted last year with a couple of near misses, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but none of the top 3 from last year we missed were in state so it was a little easier to live with.
I want to go against the current here and say something. The in state talent pool this year looks very good, but I just somehow think it’s all going to be okay if we don’t get any of the “top 3” of Jeffcoat, White, or Seastrunk. Call me what you want, but I just don’t know if we need guys who aren’t sure they want to be here.
I just read and article today on Garrett Gilbert. He pretty much told Greg Davis and Mack Brown “if you want to offer me, then I want to play. I’ve wanted to be a Longhorn all my life.” This young man is the model of recruit that goes beyond rating systems. I’ve seen him on interviews and how he carries a mantle of humility,poise, and leadership beyond his years. He is a local one we got, and it was a bonus for our scoring to have landed a 5 star prospect.
Reading further I learned what most of you probably already know. He needed 34 yards in the last game of highschool to break Graham Herrells Texas Highschool Yardage record. His coach was standing next to him on the sidelines at the end of a game that was already in the bag. His coach told him he was 34 yards away from the record books. Garrett told him “I don’t care coach” The coach already knew the steady character and unselfish demeanor of his star quarterback, but as the article stated, he looked into his eyes and told him " I do care, this is for your team, for your school, and for our community…go get the record". It was reported that a gleam shown upon Garrett’s face. He went back in and he broke the record.
I don’t care if he was from Lake Travis, or from Billings Montana. If he was a 4 star or 5 star. He wants to be a Longhorn! He has the “it” factor according to Mack Brown. He reportedly only visited one other campus in California at his parents urging and asked if he could leave 10 minutes after arriving.
I would take any 4 star that wants to be a Longhorn over a 5 star who wants a red carpet leading to the center of their own universe, or just plainly wants to go to another school.
I repeat…I just somehow think it’s all going to be okay if we don’t get any of the “top 3” of Jeffcoat, White, or Seastrunk. If he wants to be a Longhorn first, and so happens to have 5 stars, then so be it! He will be led by example. He will be led by Garrett Gilbert.
reading what GG said to his coach...
during his final game and allowing his coach to make the decision is EXACTLY what I want to hear. I do hope McCoy and the boys grab some solid leads so we can watch this young man sooner rather than later.
"Stats are for losers. I like winning games." - Will Muschamp
by Mulliganville on Jul 28, 2009 12:48 AM CDT up reply actions
I dont understand this train of thought
that says “If he doesn’t want to be a Longhorn, then we don’t need him.” How many 17, 18 year old kids know exactly where they want to spend the next 3-5 years of their life? I sure wasn’t one of those kids.
On the Merriam-Webser Online Dictionary, the defenition of recruit is: to seek to enroll. So why do we have a problem with seeking out these kids that don’t know where they want to go to school and trying to get them to enroll and The University of Texas at Austin? Put yourself in some of these kids shoes, kids who perhaps have never traveled out of their county except for a sporting event, much less the state. Wouldn’t you want to see what else is out there, how the other programs stack up to the known commodity (Texas)? How the other coaches interact with you and your parents? Whether or not the players for that particular school are stuck up and rude or are down to earth good people?
I think all of these factors are present with a lot of recruits nowadays, and we as fans forget that they are just kids. With that being said, Come to Texas!!!
Right Track, Right Train
Let me start by saying I like your handle. Encouraging!
I think my point is more directed at those who will do or say things while “in the moment” that indicates an inner truth. When a recruit flashes signs (horns down) while visiting another program or makes a pseudo commit on video taunting a rival coach of a certain SEC program, then I think they lack the core values of a true champion. I know, I know, they’re just kids and I agree with you re; them myabe not knowing where they want to go, but these are clear indicators to me of where they don’t want to go.
I do think as well that certain ones will play the media to their fullest personal advantage and string along all parties in order to build drama. I wish the NCAA would ban these ESPN, NY Times, or whoever else that promotes, hypes, and exploits a national signing event. It does nothing for the sport as a whole and tarnishes the spirit of sportsmanship as much as running up scores or paying student athletes for work they don’t do. Heaven forbid this would involve a parent. What kind of shoe does that put on a kid?
I do think we pursue viable recruits when it warrants. I also think we should continue to withdraw offers when it’s clear we’re no longer recruiting a student athlete, but lured into bidding for a commodity. We will not get them all and that’s okay. I wish all these young men the best.
We will get the Garrett Gilbert’s, the Vince Youngs, and the Sergio Kindles. Whether we do or don’t I close with this…In the words of Mack Brown after the 2005 NC…“don’t let this be our defining moment…don’t let this be all we do in life”.
I agree on perception and inner truth
I think if a recruits uses the media that surrounds him for a circus performance, that probably has a good chance of continuing into his college career. The two examples here in Texas of polar opposites are Lache Seastrunk and Jackson Jeffcoat. Lache promises the funniest thing you have ever seen, while the Jeffcoat camp prefers to let his work do the talking. Now, we have no idea what their college careers will hold and wont know until we are talking about it 2-4 years from now, but, if you could only pick one of those two, I would have to pick the one that handles it on the field, not youtube.
by future_longhorn_dad on Jul 29, 2009 10:23 AM CDT up reply actions
Recruit's thinking vs. Alumni Perception
There are two issues here, 2Cor. One is how the kids are thinking and how the recruiters deal with them. The other issue is the perception of people like me who get all bummed when Five-Star Freddie goes to OU instead of UT.
I doubt (but don’t actually know) that any coaches sit back and say “If he doesn’t want to be a Longhorn, we don’t want him.” There are bound to be lots of players out there sitting on the fence. The coach is chartered with getting him here. Lots of kids would love to come to UT but don’t really know it yet. Plus, going to USC or Florida would be plenty of fun, too. We need to have a salesman/recruiter to encourage them as much as possible to come to UT.
This thread is alumni/fan chat. I get really upset when I think that some of the best players go somewhere else. I went to Texas and it was a great 6 years (don’t ask). Any Texas kid that goes to OU or UGA is nigh unto traitorous by my reckoning. But, it happens all the time. Do I go jump off a bridge. NO. I say to myself, “Well, if he doesn’t want to be a Longhorn, we don’t want him.”
See?
I think most of us can agree
That we’re very good at recruiting, one of the best in the NCAA, but we also can have room for improvement (there are always things to improve on). We’ve had very good classes year in and year out, and talent normally isn’t a problem at Texas unless freak things happen at a certain position (TE, DT). I, like everyone, wish we had better news lately on high profile recruits, but you can make the argument that Texas’ problem in Mack’s tenure (until a few years ago) was more the unrealization of talent here rather than the lack of elite talent. I remember in the 2007 Holiday Bowl when we waxed ASU, Herbstreit warned that ASU should not be fooled by our rather rocky season, for we possessed far more overall talent than any Pac-10 school they had faced outside of USC. I’m sure Rudy and his friends realized that after we thumped them.
What’s missing on Mack Brown’s resume? Multiple Big 12 titles. That’s it. Only one coach has more NC titles, and that’s Meyer, and no coach has won more games over Brown’s tenure. When I look back at our missed opportunities for Big 12 titles, they normally don’t boil down to lacking talent, except maybe in 1999 when Mack was new. We came out unprepared in several big games and lost them, and sometimes we had some rough luck (Colt going down in 2006, last year’s tiebreaker fiasco). If Chris Simms doesn’t flop in 2001, Colt doesn’t get hurt in 2006, and last year’s breaks went our way, then Mack has 4 Big 12 titles and Stoops has 5. Then nobody is making a big deal of Mack’s lack of Big 12 titles compared to Stoops. The thing is, none of the above situations ultimately boiled down to talent; we had some back luck and/or poor execution.
It sucks losing some high profile guys, but that shouldn’t make us overlook the many great guys we have already gotten.
by TheElusiveShadow on Jul 28, 2009 9:32 AM CDT reply actions
Yep...
We and USC are the best position teams in the country to truly reload on a consistent basis. While we both have in-state competitors we are currently top dogs (UF is the top dog in Florida but it remains to be seen if they can hold on to that position) and we get our hands a large number of elite players with little difficulty. The OUs, NDs of the world and just about everyone else has to rely on the vagaries of OOS recruiting to keep themselves in contention. You can often trace the ups and downs these teams have by looking at the years where the recruiting out of state didn’t go their way. We might lose out on the 5 star guys a bit more than some schools but we rake in the best of the 4 star guys and our depth will generally beat that of any other squad in the country.
What’s missing on Mack Brown’s resume? Multiple Big 12 titles. That’s it. Only one coach has more NC titles, and that’s Meyer, and no coach has won more games over Brown’s tenure. When I look back at our missed opportunities for Big 12 titles, they normally don’t boil down to lacking talent, except maybe in 1999 when Mack was new.
I think that is an excellent point that gets lost all the time. The offseason makes it look like we are severely lacking, and while Im wringing my hands about our D-line this year, its really no more so than I did for our Secondary, and to a lesser extent our D-line last year.
We had excellent shots at the big 12 championship in 2004, 2006, and 2008, and in none of those years do I think we lost because we did not have the talent that we required to compete and win.
by BoddickerIsClutch on Jul 29, 2009 4:58 PM CDT up reply actions
Can someone break down this break down?
I kid I kid, good job Ricky. To be honest, it is a little over my head. I just know that it pains me deeply when to-be-legends from Texas go to Oklahoma (aka Adrian Peterson). I understand the retention rates, but to me it seems it’s those at the very top we lose. A Rivals 100 kid is great, but a top ten 5 star is a gem…
by Make em' eat Chet! on Jul 28, 2009 10:45 AM CDT reply actions
From Rivals Top 10 in Texas
2009 – 5 of 10 committed to UT (5*: 3 of 6)
2008 – 4 of 10 (0 of 3)
2007 – 5 of 10 (2 of 4)
2006 – 6 of 10 (2 of 3)
2005 – 3 of 10 (0 of 3)
2004 – 3 of 10 (1 of 3)
2003 – 4 of 10 (1 of 4)
Last 7 yrs – 42.8% (34.6%)
Last 4 yrs – 50% (43.8%)
Although we’ve only landed the #1 player twice in those seven years, I think the retention rates are pretty strong and much improved since the MNC win. Keep in mind that we’re fighting against 5 other BCS schools in close proximity for these kids …and we’re all of five months removed from signing two of the top three.
I just can’t accept that we’re entitled to every kid that comes out of the state.
But who will be legends? Top 2 in Texas...
In 2002 we got Vince and let the Aggies have McNeal. No way we are getting both, but I think most would agree we picked correctly.
In 2003 we got Tony Hills and the Aggies got Jorrie Adams. Adams was a bust and while Hills didn’t turn out to be all-world, I wouldn’t swap them.
In 2004 Peterson and Bomar both chose OU. Bomar gets booted for receiving illegal benefits…so why did Peterson choose the Sooners again?
In 2005 the Aggies got Martellus and Miami got Reggie Youngblood. Bennett was a talent but didn’t stay long and is a bit of a wacko and Youngblood never seemed to live up to expectations.
In 2006 we got Sergio and Georgia got Stafford. You can say we missed on Stafford but I’ll take our QB consolation prize over Stafford in a heartbeat and Sergio is finally primed to become something special.
In 2007 Michigan got Ryan Mallett and LSU got Terrence Tolliver. I’m not losing sleep over losing out on these two.
In 2008 OU RJ Washington and Jermie Calhoun. I wish we had both of them, though who’s to say if they turn into great players. Calhoun might not have made it in school at UT, and from a competitive point of view I would have rather taken him, had him fail out and go to a lower division school then end up at OU where they will make sure he stays eligible.
In 2009 LSU got Shepard and we got Okafor. I’ll be hacked if Russell makes it as a WR at LSU after telling us to get lost because we wanted to take him as a WR. Okafor could be special and might make missing out of Washington seem less painful.
I’m not feeling to bad how this has turned out. We may have lost out on the top 2 5 of 6 times in the last three years, but I don’t see any of the misses turning into the next Adrian Peterson.
Again, Washington and Shepard didn’t get offers from UT.
by burntorangehorn on Jul 28, 2009 4:39 PM CDT up reply actions
My brainfart. Calhoun did not get a Texas offer; Shepard did.
by burntorangehorn on Jul 29, 2009 7:06 AM CDT up reply actions
I am not sure why that even matters...
If we didn’t offer one of the top two players in state it was either because we knew they were going to quickly commit elsewhere (I thought Washington was considered an OU lock from the start) or because we knew they weren’t going to fit into the program because of grades (like Calhoun). I think in the future you will soon see us back away from offering guys who are represented by street agents as well. All these guys were ‘Texas good’ talent-wise, but for better or for worse Mack doesn’t give the world an offer and I think the reasons Washington and Calhoun didn’t get their’s make some sense.
I’m not sure why you’re arguing that it doesn’t matter. It did matter. The Texas coaches didn’t want them, so I don’t count it against the coaches that they weren’t able to reel in those two fellas. That was my point in response to your recount of the Texas top-two prospects over the years.
by burntorangehorn on Jul 29, 2009 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions
I'll agree on Calhoun...
If Washington had even played his recruiting like Nelson this year, who was openly anti-Horns prior to visiting campus, he would have gotten a Texas offer. I have no doubt that we would have coveted him. I see your point to a degree, at least in the case of Calhoun. I am sure if next year’s top player has a criminal record we steer clear and not to many here will disagree. I think if the trend becomes that the top players in-state always seem to be anti-Horns we should be concerned. I think the fact that so many of the top players aren’t shoe-ins for us is what has some concerned around here. I am not too bothered by it when we end up getting half or more than half of the guys top guys in the state.
Speaking of getting the top recruits vs avoiding a mistake waiting to happen
Was anyone around when tOSU was recruiting Maurice Clarett? Was their any sign or warning prior to all of the shenanigans that happened during and after his freshman year. I mean, he was a great RB, but all of the stuff that resulted from his career at tOSU is not something I am sure the Buckeyes gloat about. I am wondering if he made a big show out of his recruitment, which would have made it easier to predict what happened later
by future_longhorn_dad on Jul 29, 2009 10:32 AM CDT reply actions
All I remember...
I remember him at one point saying he would have gone to UT if he weren’t afraid of flying. But being a homer, I didn’t really following anything else about his recruitment since he wasn’t going to come here.
He was a ND lean for a long time. He had an offer from them since his freshman year. He’d been attending summer football camps at YSU since middle school, but he wasn’t going to attend YSU, obviously. Then Jim Tressel was hired and he switched over pretty much automatically. . MoC was the quietest kid you would ever think of as a star. All he wanted to do in high school was play football, be eligible for football, train for football, and watch football. A real loner. He wasn’t in any trouble, had good grades, was well spoken, etc. The loner part was the only tip off. Had no real friends until he went to college…I think college was the real culture shock for him.
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